Thomas Jefferson Signature on Declaration of Independence

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Professor Dave here, let’s talk about Thomas Jefferson. No president was such a combination of intellectual greatness and personal hypocrisy as Thomas Jefferson. At his best, he was one of the shining lights of the American Revolution, an outstanding polymath of supreme brilliance when such intellects were plentiful. He was a true Renaissance man; his interests included philosophy, agriculture, history, architecture, music, literature, botany, and religion, to name but a few. Well read in virtually every aspect of human inquiry, his library became the foundation of the Library of Congress, and his treatise Notes on the State of Virginia, is considered to be the most important book published in the United States before the 19th Century. As the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, he will be forever remembered as the greatest articulator of the rights of man in American history. Though Jefferson, like most of the Founders, is thought to have been a Deist, who felt God was removed from human affairs, he found the ethical teachings of Jesus to be sublime. Jefferson’s edited version of the New Testament, which removed the supernatural elements and references to Jesus’ divinity, known as the Thomas Jefferson Bible, was given to incoming members of Congress for years as a moral compass. He was also a strong advocate for religious liberty, always proud of his authorship of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. But Jefferson was also a contradictory figure whose life often undercut the great moral authority of his writings. The most obvious example is that he, the author of the phrase, “All men are created equal,” was a slave owner. Though Jefferson initially included a condemnation of slavery in his draft of the Declaration, the Congressional Committee removed it as an obvious impediment to unity; the Southern states would never have approved it. But he would prove to be something of a coward and hypocrite throughout his public career. Despite his advocacy for state’s rights in determining the constitutionality of laws, Jefferson became one of the most ardent proponents of a strong executive power, and was the first to claim Executive Privilege. Unlike George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, who had risked their lives in battle, as Governor of Virginia, Jefferson fled when British troops under turncoat Benedict Arnold came for him in an invasion of Virginia during the war. Moreover, his political maneuvering against Washington, Hamilton, and John Adams revealed him to be a political manipulator, always employing surrogates to carry out his character assassinations, so he could claim the moral high ground. This was apparent even during his tenure in the Washington Administration when Jefferson went around spreading rumors about Washington’s mental incompetence because of political differences. Washington was furious when word got back to him and was about to sack Jefferson, but he resigned first. Washington never spoke to him again. These political differences reveal how even the greatest of minds can be led astray by basic assumptions. Jefferson was convinced that America must remain an agrarian society...